Declan Cashin

Writing: the art of applying the ass to the seat

My feature from last Saturday’s News Review in the Irish Independent

A diamond ring made so famous by Elizabeth Taylor that the stone was renamed after her could end up in the Christmas stocking of a very lucky — and very wealthy — Irish lady this year.

That’s the word from famed auction house Christie’s, who will sell off the late star’s hoard of jewels — amassed over a 50-year period — in New York in December.

“Yes, there has been Irish interest,” says Keith Penton, head of the jewellery department in Christie’s of London, where Taylor‘s collection recently went on exhibit as part of a pre-sale world tour taking in spots such as Los Angeles, Moscow, Dubai and Hong Kong.

“There are lots of pre-orders from all over the world, and I can’t say for certain, but I did meet Irish clients in London during the exhibit.”

The 269 pieces in Taylor’s collection are expected to fetch a minimum of $30m (€22m) over the course of three sales taking place on December 13 and 14.

Christie’s expects bidders to pay over the odds, not just to own an item of Taylor memorabilia, but also to buy into the romantic history behind some of the most iconic pieces in the collection.

As Keith Penton puts it: “Every time she made up or broke up with a man, there usually followed a piece of jewellery.”

Continue here.

My latest feature for movies.ie

Hollywood is running perilously low on original, creative ideas – and has been for some time. Endless sequels and prequels are clogging up – and often stinking up – our cinema screens, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that Tinsel Town is upping its order for remakes of movies from the not-so-distant past.

It doesn’t matter if the original was a hit or a turkey, Hollywood is willing to take a punt on rebooting it: anything but take a chance on something new and unknown.

The 1980s, especially, is the decade most favoured for cinematic plundering of late, and so, with that in mind, here are 10 movies from that era that you may or may not realise are being lined up for remakes:

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure:

The 1989 time-travelling comedy, which starred Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, is reportedly up for a remake with – careful not to spit your coffee out all over your laptop- Justin Bieber in one of the roles.

The tweenage moppet is apparently being talked up as a potential Ted, but the project has stalled as producers are having trouble finding an appropriate Bill. Yes, that’s the major problem here. Yeesh. Totally not bodacious dudes.

On the upside – comparatively speaking, of course – the fortysomething Reeves and Winter are also close to signing for a threequel to the comedy series.

Continue here.

My interview with Harry Connick Jnr in today’s Irish Examiner

HE MIGHT only be an occasional actor, but Harry Connick Jr had to quickly learn how to deal with a sensitive leading lady in his new film, Dolphin Tale.

“We all had to be slowly introduced us to her,” he tells me over coffee in a London hotel suite. “You couldn’t even talk in your normal voice around her. You had to approach her slowly and quietly.”

She may sound like a nightmare, but when you hear that said leading lady is actually a bottlenose dolphin named Winter who had to learn to wear a prosthetic tail after the trauma of losing the vital limb in a crab trap at three months of age, such precious behaviour makes a lot more sense.

Swoon. I saw this today as part of the press screenings for the London Film Festival – and I’m in love. Tender, romantic, sexy, heartfelt and relatable, Weekend might be the best romantic movie of 2011.

Some funny signs from the Occupy Wall St protest.

View more here.

Apple’s brief statement on the death of Steve Jobs

President Barack Obama’s statement.

Watch Jobs’ famous Stanford Commencement Address. Stay hungry, stay foolish.

The Guardian’s obituary.

Wired’s list of Jobs’ greatest achievements

My review will be available at movies.ie later this month…